Later Life and Death
After his service in the Senate, Stevenson returned to his law practice in Covington. In addition, he accepted a position teaching criminal law and contracts at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He remained interested in politics and was chosen chairman of the 1879 Democratic state convention in Louisville and president of the 1880 Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1883, the American Bar Association began exploring the concept of dual federalism. Because of his personal acquaintance with James Madison, a proponent of dual federalism, Stevenson was asked to deliver an address on the subject at the Association's annual meeting. Stevenson maintained that Madison believed strongly in the rights of the sovereign states and regarded a Supreme Court appeal as "a remedy for trespass on the reserved rights of the states by unconstitutional acts of Congress." Stevenson's address was printed and published by the Association the following year, and he was also elected its president that year. As president, he was required to deliver a speech reviewing state and federal legislation of special importance at the Association's August 1885 meeting. Association member Richard Vaux characterized the speech as "most interesting and valuable to the profession".
Among the men who studied law under Stevenson in his later years were future U.S. Treasury Secretary John G. Carlisle and future Kentucky Governor William Goebel. He had a particular affinity for Goebel, who eventually became his law partner and the executor of his will. In early August 1886, he traveled to Sewanee, Tennessee, to attend the commencement ceremonies of Sewanee University. While there, he fell ill and was rushed back to his home in Covington, where he died on August 10, 1886. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
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“To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?”
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